- AP Moller-Maersk (OTCPK:AMKAF, OTCPK:AMKBY) CEO Nils Anderson warns that conditions for global trade are even worse than at the height of the 2008 financial crisis.
- "It is worse than in 2008," Anderson says. "The oil price is as low as its lowest point in 2008-09 and has stayed there for a long time and doesn't look like going up soon. Freight rates are lower. The external conditions are much worse."
- CEO Nils Andersen made the remarks in a Financial Times interview after the world's biggest shipping company issued "a perfect storm" of FY 2015 results amid falling freight rates and sluggish trade growth: The company booked an 82% fall in its profits during 2015, to $925M (£638M) from more than $5B (£3.45B) in 2014, including a ~$2.5B writedown on Maersk's oil-based assets in the U.K., Brazil and other markets.
- “Maersk has been hit by the perfect storm, with the low energy prices dealing a serious blow to the oil unit and minimal benefits for the container business, with any cost savings from the lower fuel bill being largely passed to cargo owners,” says Lars Jensen, chief executive of Copenhagen-based Sea Intelligence Consulting.